Cartridge for Graham 1.5

I have the Graham 1.5T (on a VPI TNT) and have been using the Ortofon Jubilee for the last 10 months. Great sounding cartridge and a big step up from the Crown Jewel (aka shelter 501) which I used for a few years.
The Jubilee sounds full bodied, robust and uncolored - ie without ever tipping into warmth. It has great bass definition and natural highs with no brightness. Dynamics are a significant step-up from the CJ - as is soundstaging and image focus. It's also the best tracking cartridge I've owned, almost never loses it's composure, making it very relaxing to listen to.
This doesn't really convey what great music maker the Jubilee is - it's a thoroughly enjoyable and involving cartridge to listen to. In my system it stomps on the CJ in this respect. It does require careful setup to extract the best and is a little fussy about VTA/VTF/azimuth - perhaps due to the stylus shape.

Regarding matching of the Jubilee to the 1.5 - I've tested the resonant frequencies with the HFN&RR test record and get a nearly ideal 10-11Hz for vertical and horizontal resonant frequencies. The cartridge is very well behaved in the Graham.
Actually theory would predict that the 16µm/mN compliance would produce a lower resonant frequency around 8.5Hz (assuming an effective mass of 11g for the Graham and 9.5g weight of Jubilee) - maybe the so called "Wide range Damping" used by Ortofon has something to do with the actual result.
I'm sure the higher compliance of the Jubilee contributes to its super tracking performance.

Don't read too much into specified compliance figures, I've had great results with cartridges speced around 12µm/mN. Funnily enough, the Denon 103R (5µm/mN but specified at 100hz not the normal 10hz) also produced resonant frequencies of ~10hz in the Graham - and also tracked superbly (though not up to Jubilee standard).

Don't know if he still has any, but I got my Jubilee from Juki in Hong Kong for about US$1K. Might be hard to beat its sonic and tracking virtues at that price.

I found the Jubilee is very sensitive to small changes of all setup parameters - azimuth, VTA, VTF and antiskate all have to be carefully adjusted. It'll sound very nice with moderate care - but it will take a fair bit of experimentation to optimise things (this is probably true of most fine cartridges).
Start with VTA parallel - you probably won't deviate much but soundstage/focus/coherence will lock in when it's right. Soundstage size, clarity and focus should blitz the 501 if my experience the CJ is anything to go by.
I usally tweak VTA on a per record basis - definitely if there is a change of vinyl weight.
The cartridge will still sound fine if you set and forget VTA (it's difficult to make it sound bad), but you will cheat yourself of the excellence of which it is capable.
Good luck!

Yes the scale has .002g precision. Unfortunately this precision is offset by inaccuracy caused by not measuring at record height. Nonetheless, it can still be used as a reference point.
Best to make fine adjustment of VTF by ear anyway (though I like to take a measurement so I can repeat the setup if swapping cartridges etc).
As you said, listening is more fun than obsessing over the actual VTF - as long as it is set for best sound.

The whole thing with the arm height helps explain the anomalies that have been bugging me with VTF measurements on the Graham. I agree it does seem counter-intuitive though.
Thanks for your input James.
Cheers, Paul

Carl, make sure you experiment with the VTF setting. In my setup the recommended 2.3g doesn't sound best. At 2.3g depth layering, spaciousness and image separation/presence/dimensionality suffer somewhat. The music also sounds less coherent and engaging. It sounds good but not special at this VTF - *in my system*.
Currently I have mine set closer to 2.1g (it's summer down hear in Australia, so this may be a factor).
Of course the rest of your system/balance will influence your preferred cartridge settings - just a suggestion to try.
BTW, I think the Jubilee sounds great on vocals - male and female - much better weight, realism and neutrality than my Crown Jewel (shelter clone).

FWIW, here are my System details

Hopefully the scale you bought uses a measuring platform that places the stylus at true record level (like the Wally Malewicz version).
If not, you won't get a true reading with the Graham.

I recently bought one of those small electronic VTF scales that Acoustic Sounds is selling (chinese design, labeled cartridge arm load meter) - except I only paid A$70 locally.

I thought a neat little scale, purpose designed for VTF measurements, would be easier to use than my pocket scale with it's Wally platform copy.
Unfortunately the new scale places the measurement point a couple of mm above the actual playing height. This results in an error of about 0.2g in my setup!!

I thought this was crazy and tested both scales with a One Yen coin (nominally 1g) - both scales measured the same (to the nearest 100th gram). If I raised the weighing platform height of my pocket scale when measuring VTF, I could duplicate the readings on the got with the new VTF scale.

Further testing with my pocket scale/weighing platform (which weighs at actual record height) shows there is even a variation of 0.1g when going from 120g vinyl to 200g vinyl.
I'm going to do some followup testing, but it appears I should be adjusting VTF for different record thicknesses!!??

Carl, does the scale look like this one - new VTF scale
If so, that scale reads about 0.2g higher than my scale that measures exactly at record level. The scale is shown measuring a 1 yen coin (nominally 1g).
With 1g test weights placed directly on the measuring platforms, both of my scales read the same.

Here are a couple of old pics I took of the pocket scale/wally adapter.
Pocket scale weighing 1 yen coin
Wallyscale clone